In E. coli, the transport of glucose across the cell membrane is facilitated by the phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP)-dependent phosphotransferase transfer system (PTS). The PTS system is part of a complex regulatory system that allows E. coli to control numerous metabolic pathways in response to the presence of glucose. However, in the presence of glucose, a cell with an intact PTS system preferentially utilizes glucose and represses other sugar utilization pathways, a phenomenon known as “catabolic repression.” Thus, a host cell having an intact PTS system that is fed a mixture of glucose plus xylose preferentially consumes glucose before xylose. Deleting all or part of the PTS system can decouple glucose transport from the effects of catabolic repression, but also impairs the ability of the cell to utilize glucose and various other sugars. Thus, there remains a need in the art for methods of restoring high levels of glucose transport in PTS negative strains. Additionally, there remains a need for methods of increasing co-utilization of multiple types of sugar in microbial host cells.